Observe young Taylor Pugh: a four-year-old rapscallion unwilling to trim his wild mane for the sake of classroom safety. The school board of Mesquite, Texas has voted to ban longhairs like Taylor from pre-K. Taylor Pugh: boy. Hair. Threat. [NYT]

Yesterday there was little news available from Haiti, so optimism remained. But as more info about yesterday's earthquake comes out, it looks grim. The prime minister says hundreds of thousands may be dead. The government has almost ceased to function.

Roger Ailes played the part as Rupert Murdoch's political apparatchik — transforming Fox News into the Republican Party id to suit his corporate master's political interests. But recent events suggest Murdoch's no longer in control of the beast he created.

California financier Danny Pang died at home last September just months after being accused of running a Ponzi scheme. Now the coroner's ruled that Pang killed himself with a massive overdose of painkillers, as suspected. [WSJ. Pic: AP]

Sarah Palin is coming to Fox News, as a contribucommentator! She will not have her own show but will be allowed to sit in a chair and speak, or possibly strut around(?). Get your Tivos ready. [Media Decoder]

Wacky Korean nation North Korea is calling for peace treaty talks with the US—just months after Bill Clinton went there to save two reporters and took fun fotos with Kim Jong-Il. Coincidence? Bill Clinton wins Nobel Peace Prize 2010!

Herman Rosenblat is the Holocaust survivor whose Oprah-endorsed story of meeting his wife while in a concentration camp turned out to be fake. When his publisher found out, they demanded their advance back. We've got the documents.

First PETA used Michelle Obama in an unauthorized ad; now, Weatherproof has plastered Barack's face on a billboard just because he wore their coat once. What's next, telling you the Obamas read our blog daily? No, we respect their privacy.

Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend is meeting personally this month with shell-shocked staffers at the company's various magazines for what is described as "a rah-rah speech" with "lots of charts and graphs." Everybody, "Conde rules" on one! [NYO]

The Way We Live Now: Bowling alone. Bowling for Columbine (we are sad lunatic gun nuts). Bowling for dollaz! We're bankrupt, but we put the bowling on our debit card. Visa will understand. Visa: master of hobobowling.

Johnny Lee Wicks, who shot two cops in a Vegas courthouse yesterday, had been battling the government for two years over his Social Security benefits. I guess he lost. [Las Vegas Sun. Pic: AP]

Way back in October of aught-eight, we published the Gawker Guide to a Journalism Career. Lots of things have changed since then. For the worse, mostly! Time for an update. Aspiring journalists and other masochists, read on.

On December 31 everyone is thinking about ways to improve themselves for the coming year. Why bother? That will all be forgotten by February 12, and then you'll still have problems and be a failure. But we're here to help!

Some people are upset that the Republicans are forcing poor Sen. Robert Byrd (Invalid-W.V.) to actually show up and vote on the healthcare bill. We hope they drag him bodily to every roll call vote until he kicks or retires.

It's tough out there for science writers following in Malcolm Gladwell's footsteps. Not because he's so good, but because he's so wrong. Here's a rant by author Jeff Wise, republished from Psychology Today, on undoing Gladwell's damage to the facts.

So he's prank-calling local news-talk radio shows as "Barry From D.C." Is it five yet? Anyone up for lunch?

How many Polish guys did it take to steal the Auschwitz sign? Five, according to police—who, we should stress, were also Polish, so let's not stereotype anyone, on this, of all stories. [CNN. Pic: AP]

The WSJ takes a shot today at the story of Tiger Woods' clandestine deal to appear in Men's Fitness in exchange for the National Enquirer keeping his affair quiet. AMI, Tiger Woods, and News Corp all look ridiculous now.

The New York Times has identified the source of Goldman Sach's image troubles—it used to be a hip bank, one that really cared about the banking, you know? Now all they care about is money. Sellouts.

Oral Roberts has finally been killed by God for not raising enough money.